Sonic Unleashed, Again?
by KusaJaguar
Summary: What exactly would it be like for Sonic if he suddenly regained his Werehog powers? How exactly would it happen? Would Eggman be involved like last time? What about Chip and Dark Gaia? This series explores exactly that, with tons of fun misadventures,too!
1. Chapter 1

** Sonic Unleashed, Again?**

**Chapter 1-Power Abuse**

It has been almost a full year since Sonic, with help from his then-newest ally Chip, defeated Dark Gaia. With his defeat came the mending of the planet's shattered pieces, the breaking of a nocturnal curse, the resealing of two ancient beings, and most importantly, the formation of an eternal friendship. It seemed that, as Sonic adjusted the collar-turned-bracelet on the cuff of his glove, green gem adorned at the top, the troubles of his days (or rather, nights) of the Werehog were over. Those were his thoughts. They were...as he sped through a Green Hill loop-de-loop in pursuit of his one and only real, true enemy-who had now retaken a liking to his old badniks.

Sonic was not sure why he was, nor was he sure what his enemy's intentions were for building a large tower in Green Hill Zone. Obviously, he knew too well whatever the resident mad scientist was thinking could only lead to trouble, but still. He'd like to know what scheme had crossed this moustache's genius mind this time, if only to mock and ridicule his futile and constant attempts to best him before he crushed it like every other time before.

Sonic, as always, was pushing the height of his speed, boosting through badniks, feeling a little too lazy today to actually take the extra few seconds to homing attack them, as he kept his shiny green eyes on the big, fat, egg-shaped prize as it tried to hover away and out of sight from the blur. Sonic had been feeling quite lazy in regards to his personal safety recently. Despite his natural disposition towards such tendencies, it seemed as though recently, he had just completely forgotten any fear he had (once again, not out of the ordinary for him most of the time, but still odd given the new circumstances), and for very obvious reasons.

Eggman turned back towards Sonic, shoving his index finger down on a large button. A small hatch in the back of his Egg Mobile immediately slid open, sucking in a small, bluish pink flicky into its machinery. After a minute or two of loud, clanking machinery ticking inside the small hover vehicle, another hatch immediately slid open in the front, spitting out a badnik-ized flicky, jet boosters protruding from its body where wings once were. Its dark red eyes automatically locked on Sonic, firing two small, yet precise pinkish red lasers towards his feet, burning a pair of scorch marks into the green grass. Sonic, now feeling completely languid, decided to just let his new power take care of it, as he had been doing so quite increasingly. Just as the lasers were to touch his shoes, now worn and dirty from his long runs of the day, the bracelet on Sonic's arm began to shine intensely, bathing Sonic in a green forcefield; The new, powerful shield only allowed the laser a moment of any sort of impactful pressure before easily letting the laser ricochet off it and right back at the flicky badnik, blasting it free of its new robot form. The small bird glided away, tweeting joyfully as Sonic sped by, his trademark smirk growing ever larger on his face.

"Please, Egghead." Sonic rolled his eyes as he dodged a familiar free spinning, brown and light tan, checkered ball swinging uncontrollably from the Egg Mobile. "Badniks? And that ancient wrecking ball? What happened to, "Out with the old, and in with the new?""

Eggman still blasting through the Zone at top speed, spun his Egg Mobile to face Sonic again, an even larger smirk partially hidden by his bushy, orange moustache. "Heh, I've gotten quite fond of the classics," Eggman sneered as he stroked his 'stache, "Not that a walnut-sized brain such as yours could comprehend, Rodent." He sucked up another flicky and hurled it at Sonic.

Sonic, hopping some spikes as he allowed his shield to bounce the flicky's lasers, chuckled, speaking in a mocking voice, "Sure I do! You're an old relic who likes even older relics!"

Eggman tugged on one side of 'stache angrily, his sneer turning to a scowl. "Some things never get old!" Eggman countered as he unchained the ball, allowing it to freely barrel towards the small blue blur.

"You mean..." Sonic, using the last of his reserved energy to give a hard, vertical air boost to avoid the ball, came up fast on the Mobile with a homing attack, immediately shutting a left booster off, causing the Mobile to teeter awkwardly. Then, punting it sky high with a left as he fell to the ground, he casually took a few steps back as he watched the Egg Mobile shatter like glass against the green floor, bits of parts spewing from various spots on it in every direction. "...like watching you..." Eggman, who soon followed his Egg Mobile's trajectory, landed in a tangled knot on top of a mangled heap of what was now scrap. His fat cushioned his fall, much to Sonic's obvious disappointment, so his fall wasn't nearly as much fun as he thought it would be. A grin quickly reappeared on his face as he approached Eggman. "...face-plant the ground? Totally agree with ya there, Eggman."

"..." Eggman was rolling around slightly, trying to push himself upright, but he was failing miserably; He honestly did look like an egg on his side, rolling like a slightly shaken ball back and forth and every which way.

Sonic, his already large head swelling from his growing ego, pridefully put a shoe on the Eggman, leaning on his bent knee with his arm, his face positioned downward so that he could allow his gaze to meet Eggman's. "Seriously, though, I gotta ask," Sonic began casually, his smirk now widening, holding his other hand up next to his face in thought, "What's with the sudden nostalgia?"

"..." Eggman didn't respond, but Sonic could feel him chuckling quietly under his sneaker.

Sonic snapped his fingers in front of the Doctor a few times, followed by waving his hand in front of his face. "Helloooooooo? Doc? You knock your head too hard against the floor?" As Sonic waved his hand, he felt a heavy, bowling ball-sized object hit the back of his shoulder with a loud 'ch-thunk!' Sonic paused, immediately checking the area behind him. To his surprise, there was nothing. He checked around once more; Positively nothing but the animals resting peacfully under the twilight sun as it began to set, far off into the distance. As Sonic turned back, he felt something rub up against his cheek. He put his hand on his shoulder-or at least where it should have been. The only thing he saw there, as he turned to look, was a large hunk of Egg Mobile debris fixed tightly to his shoulder. He immediately began to pull at it, lifting his foot off Eggman and wholly devoting his concentration to tearing the oddly fixated piece of junk off his shoulder.

Suddenly, several more pieces of junk flew seemingly from out of nowhere and latched onto Sonic's arms and legs, the new weight on his body now forcing him onto his back as Eggman's chuckle began to rise in volume. A couple more pieces jumped and latched onto his chest as Eggman slowly stood up, laughing with an apparent expression of smug satisfaction on his face, no doubt due to the fact that Sonic had ran headlong into his clever trap. He strode up to Sonic, carrying a small remote in his hands as he watched Sonic continue to struggle with the machinery, and he placed a large boot on his small chest.

"Ohhhhohohohooo! How very kind of you Sonic, to be so concerned about my well-being!" Eggman complimented in a false sense of sincerity as he pressed the upper right button on his remote, causing half a dozen more pieces to fly at Sonic, covering his entire body (save for a slit so that he could still see the Eggman sneering at him) in several layers of blunt metal. "Unfortunately," Eggman continued as he pressed the center button, "I'm not that forgiving, least of all to you!"

"Oh, I'm hurt Eggman," Sonic glared, a sort of angry grin present underneath his layers of metal restraints, "You couldn't even show your strongest enemy a little generosity? So much for being a 'gentleman'."

Eggman raised a finger in protest as he took his boot off Sonic. "Ah! But then what sort of person allows their enemy the honor to be the first prototype in their latest series of brilliant experiments?" Eggman questioned as Sonic's scrap metal casing began to lift him upright and slightly into the air, but still high enough to be a few feet above Eggman's cue ball head. "I'd say that's very gentlemanly."

"Except for the part where I'll just let Chip break this junk off," Sonic countered, already beginning to feel the bracelet's warm glow.

Eggman paused, a look of confusion on his face. He pushed it away, refocusing his attention on the machine again, an over-confident look on his face. "Whoever this 'Chip' is, he won't be able to save you this time!" Eggman assured Sonic as he mashed the center button again, causing the metal to start spewing electricity as it noisily clanked and whirred about. There was a long pause, Eggman grinning maliciously at the machinery, Sonic looking down at it and then back up at the Doctor, a bored expression on his face. The pause continued to lengthen, Sonic's face growing increasingly bored and impatient, Eggman's still frozen in place with no clear, visible change, as the machinery's electricity and inner workings clanked and hummed to fill the silence of the tense moment.

"Uh," Sonic began, breaking the steady rhythm of the machine's various noises, "Do you think you could speed this thing up a little or somethin'?" He could feel the bracelet's strength slowly increasing, but not fast enough to his liking. "'Cause I kinda wanna just-"

"You'll just sit right there and wait!" Eggman snapped, the conversation now sounding like a parent versus kid fight. "I couldn't find some way to make it go any faster!"

"So then was that whole IQ of 300 thing just a joke all this time?" Sonic grinned, sensing Eggman's building frustration.

He grumbled what sounded like, 'Geniuses have their off days, too,' but Sonic couldn't be sure since Eggman had his back turned for a minute or two as he fiddled with the remote. He spun back towards Sonic, shoving the remote in a small pocket. "Well, seeing as you're going to not remember anything in a few minutes, I may as well wipe that smug smirk off your face."

"With what? A bar of soap and a towel? While floating mid-air? I didn't know you had super powers, Eggman...," Sonic mocked, "And who ever decided I was going to lose my memory in the next few minutes?" The bracelet was glowing bright enough that a few ribbons of green were starting to leak through the machine's cracks.

"Heh, didn't you hear me before?" Eggman's smile was wider than ever now. "I said that your precious 'Chip' won't help you now, and neither will that bracelet!"

Sonic rolled his eyes at Eggman's stupidity. "Why? Because you said so? Or is there actually some method to your madness this time around?" The bracelet's light was filtering through the machine's cracks quite regularly now. He just had to keep him occupied a little longer.

"Oh, there's a method," Eggman assured, "and it is quite mad, even more so than my genius!"

"Could you skip the banter and get on with it?" The bracelet was vibrant. Just a little more.

"Maybe if you gave me a moment to speak, I would!" Eggman growled, taking a breath to regain his composure, "Now then, don't think I'm an idiot, Sonic, not noticing the light flowing from your bracelet right now and every other time something gets close to you. Like I said, neither that nor 'Chip' is going to help get you out of this. On the contrary, it will be the fuel to your destruction."

Sonic didn't say anything-he just simply smiled his typical smirk again. "Yeah, you keep thinking that. In the mean time...," Sonic trailed off as he felt the bracelet reach full strength, "I'm outta here!" The bracelet, now bursting with blinding green light, began to ripple throughout the binding machinery, erupting from every little crack. He could feel the weight of the armor slowly lifting off of him, literally, as the machinery began to loosen with every large wave of energy pulsing from the bracelet, which was now following a steady rhythm. As it pulsed, the pieces of machinery grew looser, looser, and looser still until finally it was ready to just fall apart. Finally, with one last pulse, the wave of energy was stopped midway through, seemingly by the machinery, forming its typical shield. To Sonic's surprise, the shell did not collapse and fall apart, rather, they began to emit high levels of electricity, turning the once bright green to a dark reddish purple, immediately following by contracting and clamping tightly onto Sonic once more, perhaps even tighter. "Gnnnrk!" Sonic grunted in shock, "Wh-what?-What just happened?"

"Ohhhhhohohohooo!" Eggman took a few steps closer and looked up at Sonic, his eyes clamped shut from the eerie, purple bursts of electricity surging through him and the machine. "Like I said, that bracelet of yours will only seal your destruction! You see, I have engineered the Egg Mobile parts to not only latch onto you upon its inevitable breaking apart, but also to convert that annoying little bracelet's power to the energy needed to build a pod strong enough to hold even the likes of you." He pointed to where Sonic's bracelet should be underneath the machines, which were rapidly increasing their pressure on Sonic. "And since that bracelet of yours only ever reacts to things that get close to you, as long as you're stuck in that pod, I can suck all the power I want from both you and it, turning you into the only living power supply I'll ever need!"

Sonic wanted to say something back, something to make him shut up so that he could have a moment to think how he was going to get out of this. Meanwhile, Eggman had pulled the remote out from his pocket, pressing the upper right button with a maniacal laugh. "Now to finish the job!" Another surge of electricity, this time an even darker purple began to course through Sonic as the machines began to lock, slowly cutting off his last bits of sight.

Sonic, continuing the struggle as best as he could, grasped desperately for an idea; Any idea that could get him out of here before he became Eggman's personal hedgehog battery. _"C'mon, hedgehog, think it through! This thing sucks up energy from the bracelet, then fires it back so that it can close me up. It runs only on the bracelet; Can I shut it off? Maybe take the bracelet off?"_ Sonic fought against his steel casing, trying his hardest to get his hands, or even his legs, free for just a second, just one tiny second. The metal wouldn't give an inch. _"No. What else? What else is there that can break this thing? Whatever I try, it just takes more of my energy!"_ Then a thought crossed his mind. It was a crazy thought, but he did ask for 'any' idea. _"...S-Should I?..."_ Another few volts of electricity struck him hard. _"Do I even have a choice?"_ With that, Sonic raised his voice above the mechanical crackles and snaps of corrupted electricity, calling out as loud as he could. "CHIP!" Sonic shouted, "Listen up! I need you to pour all the energy you have into the bracelet right now! Hurry!" As Sonic finished the last of his sentence, the last few pieces of junk slid into place over the weak blue hedgehog's face, forming a perfect egg-shaped pod.

Eggman raised a fist triumphantly. "SUCCESS! Sweet, sweet success! At last!" He chuckled maniacally to the many twinkling stars up in the sky now. He gleefully shoved the remote in his pocket, practically skipping over to the pod and patting it lightly on the side as it lowered to the floor. "I'll just give you a few hours to sit, then we'll take you back to the main base in order to see what your limits are." He took his hand away, turning around towards the rolling hills streaked with bits of orange and red above them. "Then I can put phase two into effect! Hooohohohoho!" As Eggman continued to laugh, there came a loud 'thud!' from behind him. He stopped, checking behind him and noticing the strange noise came from the pod. He walked up to the pod, another 'thud!' echoing against the hollow shell as he put a steady hand against it. There was a pause, so Eggman put an ear up close to the side. Suddenly, a quick series of 'thuds!', each one coming faster and hitting the pod harder than the next, began to ring loudly off the shell. Before Eggman could get the chance to turn and run, the pod had already exploded, bits of even tinier junk flying every direction, as Sonic, corrupted purple pulses of energy coming in increasing speed from the bracelet, screamed loudly over the Zone.

Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the pulses stopped, the bracelet now turned a deep purplish red, as Sonic ceased his screaming and plopped onto the ground with a soft 'thud...' He struggled to lift himself up, ears drooped, eyes halfway closed from sheer exhaustion, grunting under his breath from the amount of pain it took just to lift an arm.

Eggman, face and moustache both equally scorched, jumped up, a frustrated glare on his face as he locked his eyes on the weak hedgehog, still stumbling every time he tried to lift himself up. "gggrrrrRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! You blasted HEDGEHOOOOOOG!" He screeched in rage, picking up a large gear from the burnt up ground and proceeding to charge full speed at Sonic. "You have ruined my plans for the last-!" Eggman, pausing mid-swing as he hovered over the hedgehog, froze in fear and disbelief. "Wh-wha?"

Sonic was on the ground, on his knees grunting in pain as his body began to grow rapidly, grayish blue fur beginning to crop up all over his shaky body. Sonic could feel a surge of dark energy creeping up his spine in steady rhythm with his slow, shaky breathing rate. His eyes, now completely shut tight again in pain, were already angling themselves into a sharper, more serious shape.

"N-n-nooooooooo! Not that-that thing again!" Eggman immediately turned in fear, sprinting frantically as he pulled out the remote again as he scrambled to type in the correct buttons to summon his extra Egg Mobile, which quickly hovered down a few minutes after. Typing in a few coordinates, Eggman rocketed away, disappearing amongst the stars.

_"Thing?...,"_ Sonic pondered, now panting heavily as his transformation took hold of his body's mobility. Everything hit at once as Sonic grasped the ground firmly with his gloved hands as they grew larger, tighter, digging into the soft earth with all his energy. His peachy warm muzzle cooled to a gray, fangs quickly beginning to replace his canines. A prickling sensation hit Sonic as he felt his chest become covered in fur. His clawed hands were now a matching grey as they exploded from his gloves. His arms quickly thickened, now covered in a heavy layer of dark blue fur encircled with white tufts. Quills began to turn furred and white-tipped at the same rate of his rapidly elongating ears. Lastly, his shoes, socks now torn and ripped, became cleats with three large spikes across the white straps.

His transformation now complete, the new Werehog turned his head towards the moonless sky, letting out a howl of pain as the last waves of corrupted energy rose up his spine. Now, suddenly beginning to lose all control once again even though he wasn't immobile, he began teeter back and forth, now inching towards a high cliffside with a river of crystal blue water coursing below it. He clutched his head with one furry arm, trying to stop it from making everything spin before his exhausted eyes.

"Nnnngh...Wh-what was...," Sonic growled sleepily as he shook his head, "Where'd that...that howl come from?" He took his hand away from his face as the world continued to catch up with his eyes. He noticed the increased weight to his arms, feeling his fur brush up against his sides. Staring down at his cleats, then at his large, clawed hands, his vision finally readjusted, allowing him to take in the full disbelief of what he was staring at. "I...I...," Sonic continued to stare at his burly hands, then his new, yet familiar powerful arms. "...N-n-no! NO! Not again!" He began to back up, his cleats teetering on the edge of the cliff. "No!...N-" The edge of the cliff Sonic was standing on gave way under the slight new pressure, plunging him down into the river. He clawed at the cliff desperately, trying to get a grip on the sheer, vertical rock, but it was no use. He was too far out to grab anything with the length of his normal arms, and the shock had made him forget of his stretching abilities. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He hit the water like a cinder block, now out cold as the river's speedy current carried him downstream.

**Artist's Comments**

For the longest time, I regarded Sonic Unleashed with average interest. I said, "Eh, not much to the game as a whole. Pretty straightforward and shallow..." However, I only ever played Wii's version of Sonic Unleashed. I always thought Sonic the Werehog himself was "Eh". As soon as I played just a bit of Sonic's night play for the Xbox, I instantly became obsessed. What can I say? I love transformation, and the Xbox's superior version was amazing. So I thought, "Hey! Why didn't anyone mess with the bracelet?" The bracelet is the focus point in this fan-fic, as it causes his transformation curse to return. Sorry for the far-fetched plot, if it seems that way that is (lol), but this seemed to work out. Eggman does have a motive, which will be revealed later, and Eggman is scared of Sonic the Werehog because of how he lost to him (thrown out of the Egg Dragoon like a ragdoll), plus a little fear of Dark and Light Gaia and their power-which Eggman knew caused Sonic's condition in Unleashed. So, he thought it was the case here, and it kinda is in a roundabout way. Now, firstly feel free to comment-or review. Whatever is the proper term on this site. Sorry for how OOC Eggman and Sonic may appear. I rarely ever work with anything beyond fan-charries. I will get better quick! Chip is in the plot, but will not appear. Same for Dark Gaia. Kinda. This story has a major plot, but most of the time I'll be just doing funny stories as fillers (misadventures for the win). As the story progresses, more reasons for events will be explained. A good one with a ton of info is the second chapter, unless I change it when uploading it. Sorry for the title being so off-center. I tried to fix it, but I'm still new to this site.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sonic Unleashed, Again?**

**Chapter 2-Back to Basics**

"G-grrrggh..." Sonic felt sick; His body throbbed, and he could barely open his eyes beyond a set of two slits to see. Whenever he tried to lift himself, he could only manage getting up to his knees before a bunch of stars flew in front of him, blocking his view so much so that he'd lose his balance and fall again. "Ugh...," he growled lowly, "What did I hit?" He put a claw on the side of his head, quickly pulling it away again when he felt the soaked, matted fur. He glanced down at his other claw, halfway stuck in the wet sand. His cleats were filled with water, the foamy beach waves softly gliding over and up to his knees before receding and starting it again. His whole body was one drenched, matted ball of fur. "Oh yeah..." Using his large arms for balance, he steadied himself as he stood upright, slowly walking over to the edge of the beach. He lowered his head, staring down at his monstrous form, a scary frown that looked like a toothy scowl on his face. He sighed heavily, "Well, this is one form I thought I'd never see again..." He cringed at his new voice, all too familiar yet not in the least bit welcoming to him. Suddenly, but slowly, he felt a huge wave of anger shoot up through his back, right to his arms and stopping at his fists. He threw them back, balled up tightly, as he howled.

"So why DO I see it again?" He screamed to the stars angrily, "I stopped Dark Gaia! He's sleeping like a baby at the center of the Earth now! He took his dark power out of me, end of story!" He paused, still staring at the sky, then he turned back and stared at his claws in bewilderment and rage. "So then, why?" He quickly turned around again and locked his view on the nearest tree, lifting it up with both hands and getting ready to hurl it at the river, stopping only when he noticed a glint of purple out of the corner of his eye. He glanced at his wrist, pushing aside the fur and noticing a purple gem at the top of a round, gold..."Bracelet!" Sonic exclaimed as he threw the tree aside, ripping the bracelet off his wrist to hold it up to his face. He studied the milky red and plum mist swirling about where the vibrant green had once been.

Sonic's mind instantly went back to that pod Eggman had built. Sonic let out a low growl, snarling, "Why should I expect anything different from that Egghead?" He clutched the bracelet tightly, turning back to the river. "Which reminds me," Sonic pondered out loud, flipping the ring like a small coin in his hand, "How far did this river throw me anyway?" He turned towards the thick, forested area behind him, tall, thicker rooted trees stretching their tops over the jungle like umbrellas. "Far enough." Knowing he'd rather cut through foliage than take a swim, upstream at that, he began to run, or in Werehog form more like run-jog, to the jungle.

"_Hot and humid. What a perfect place for that river to drop me...,"_ Sonic thought as he tried to control his frizzy fur. To add to his list of complaints today, he was now getting snagged on thorny branches, no thanks to his new coat. A few had already cut into him, leaving a few nice scratches on his arms and legs. Some were already bleeding, making his already sticky coat like crazy glue to the touch. He shook another thorny vine loose of his arm as he waded through the seemingly never-ending sea of leaves, roots, and brush. "Least this is better than swimming," the Werehog grumbled as he pushed a branch out of the way.

Not a minute after he said that, a few blinding flashes of light rippled through the sky, Sonic only being able to see a few little ripples due to the blanket of trees. After a few thunderclaps that quickly followed, Sonic could feel the first few drops of an almost immediate downpour, becoming drenched within seconds. He lowered his eyelids a bit in frustration, still trying to keep a straight face without going unleashed on the whole forest. "Aaaand now it's worse," Sonic sighed through gritted fangs. Stretching his arm over to a small nearby tree, he grabbed a large leaf and held it over his soggy head, ears pulled back in frustration as he pressed forward, deeper into the tangled jungle.

The rain had dragged on for hours, and it only poured more. Even with the giant leaf he had found, the weight and slippery texture of the water had made the already thin leaf flimsy and hard to keep a hold on, despite his large hands. He had to keep an iron claw on it just to keep it from slipping. His cleats were sloshing noisily in the muddy ground, which also tended to have a sucking effect every time he stepped in a particularly soft part, forcing him to give a hard jerk to either side, thus forcing him to lose his balance and fall sideways into the mud. Every time, he would just growl a bit, maybe bare his fangs in frustration, then lift himself up, shaking off any loose or clumped dirt, then promptly resume his march. _"It's only for the night. It's only for the night. It's only for the night," _he told himself. He had to keep repeating that in his mind constantly, more than he normally would before as a Werehog anyway, for tonight was only around halfway through. He could tell from the moon's positioning, which he managed to get a good look at maybe-about a half hour ago? It was hard to tell the time in such a place, not being able to look at the sky through the tree tops, which the clouds would then still obstruct normally-even if he got a chance.

He just couldn't help but keep coming back to this nagging question, though. _"What can break my curse now?"_ He already knew that somehow the bracelet's power and Eggman were involved, but he didn't know how he would be able to fix things this time around. After all, the Gaia Temples weren't for purifying bracelets. He didn't really even understand why the bracelet's corruption had an effect on him in the first place.

He even remembered what Tails said about its power when Sonic first discovered it after a fight with one of Eggman's larger mechs. The Egg Goliath, as Eggman had called it, was a giant, humanoid, red, yellow, and white fighting machine. It wasn't terribly unique, he'd seen about half a dozen others like it, but it was very strong, and it was almost like its own island; It was one of the few best fights he'd ever had.

* * *

><p>He could remember the exhilaration he felt as the giant robot missed a left hook at Sonic, allowing him to land safely on its forearm and take a ride up to the sky on its uppercut. As he let gravity guide his spin-dash to the cockpit, he saw a right coming straight at him from the corner of his eye. Turning the situation around, he homing attacked the shoulder of the right as he let it plow the left, knocking it clean off its mechanical joint. The other arm was soon to follow after Sonic drilled it with another spin-dash. Losing its balance, Sonic could remember perfectly the wide smirk on his face as he hopped off the Egg Goliath and watch it fall to the side like a tipsy shelf of antiques. The thing looked like a mound of metal and glass.<p>

Chuckling as he began to speed up in place for a straight spin-dash to the cockpit, he noticed tiny little pieces of metal seemingly leaking from small open gashes on the Egg Goliath. Ignoring them at first, and noticing that his sight was about to go blank from all the dirt he was turning up, Sonic whipped himself loose, traveling at top speeds up the machine's torso, right at the cockpit for a second try. He could remember the look on Eggman's face. Much like the one he had when he was staring up at him through his 'junk' shell earlier that night, Eggman was grinning ear to ear, sitting back in his chair comfortably. He wasn't even touching a button!

Before Sonic could react, he felt a small, cold tentacle wrap around his leg, stopping him just mere inches before he hit the cockpit and hurling him back to the right ankle, grinding loudly against the metal as he did. He sat up, shaking his head a little as he heard Eggman's laughter bouncing off the metal. Turns out the Egg Goliath _was_ exactly like an island. Eggman had Badniks inside it so that they could repair whatever damage was done to it. That explained why it appeared to take so much longer than usual to knock the machine down. Problem was that Sonic had just done _exterior_ damage to the Goliath, which meant the Badniks had to crawl _out_ to fix it. Of course, Eggman had kept that in mind when he designed them, so now they had him pinned down on the ground. Sonic could only watch as the Badniks merged themselves together, creating two new arms for the Egg Goliath.

Within minutes, the Goliath, using boosters in its feet, was upright again, getting ready to land a foot right on Sonic. The Badniks at this point had a firm hold on Sonic, so he could only struggle as the Goliath's foot was to meet with his face. Suddenly, just a few centimeters before it was to squish Sonic, his bracelet glowed an intensely bright green. Before he could even tell what had just happened, he was surrounded in a green force field, and the Egg Goliath was losing its balance again. Not even paying attention to the force field now, he noticed the holes for the boosters under the Egg Goliath's exposed foot. There being plenty of room for a small blue hedgehog, Sonic decided to invite himself in with a homing attack, speeding into the hole, bouncing off the various inner mechanics of the Egg Goliath until he blasted into the cockpit. The force field had disappeared by now, but Eggman had seen it, somehow, and now he was searching anxiously out the front of the cockpit, not realizing Sonic was preparing a spin-dash.

Dashing into him from behind, Eggman was booted out of the cockpit by Sonic, who followed closely behind as the Egg Goliath fell to the ground, exploding rather loudly as it did so. Tails had accidentally caught Eggman by the wing of his plane as he was circling by, trying to do damage to the Egg Goliath before he realized what Sonic had done. He managed to shake him off before the extra weight could send him tail-spinning, but once again, no scrambled Eggman for Sonic.

Back at Tails' workshop, Tails had taken a good look at the bracelet. After testing the energy flow a few times on Sonic with random objects and setting them as projectiles aimed at him, Tails deduced that that bracelet was, in fact, connected to Chip. Chip was the one who was able to make the bracelet create those force fields, and since the bracelet was now on Sonic, Chip could tell when something threatening was about to attack Sonic based on Sonic's own body movements. Thus, he could actually send some of the energy he had collected for his and Dark Gaia's next proper awakening to the bracelet to create a force field whenever Sonic wanted. It was an amazing new ability, and quite frankly, Sonic got quite cocky after that. Sure, none of Eggman's inventions ever hindered him again after that, not until now that is, but Tails had warned Sonic about overusing it.

* * *

><p>"<em>...Hah, guess I learned my lesson now,"<em> Sonic remarked to himself as he continued into the jungle. He still didn't get why the bracelet's corruption hurt him though. Since the bracelet actually didn't contain any power unless Chip was sending it, why is it even corrupted in the first place? By that logic, Sonic guessed it was just the machine's corrupted energy that cursed him, but why the bracelet? He had a feeling that Tails didn't completely figure out everything about this bracelet yet. Sonic started to feel a headache coming on now from such confusing questions, so he decided to take a break and focus all his attention on getting to Angel Island, wherever that was now.

As Sonic clutched the leaf tightly, one of his nails tore a hole in it, causing the water to rush through it, almost immediately tearing the leaf in half as all the water that had been sagging on top poured nicely onto his quills. He stared at the leaf shreds for a moment as the rain continued to pour, then he violently tore them to shreds. He howled angrily, face raised to the sky. **"Oh, please just let it be daytime already!"** He growled.

As he continued to run in a small circle, tearing various trees and plants apart, still howling as he did, a large coconut fell from the tree, nailing him directly in his back. He grunted lowly in pain as he looked up towards the trees, sizing up which one most likely did it so that he could hurl it to Chun-Nan. As he searched, he heard a small, echoing series of giggles coming from a certain tree. He turned and listened hard. There it was again, in a large tree to left of where he was standing. He turned his head in the proper direction, and, to his shock, noticed a pair of small, golden orange eyes staring down at him, moving up and down with its giggling; He snarled loudly at the figure, as a sort of dare to come down and face him-Werehog to...whatever he was that Sonic was dealing with.

Suddenly, he felt another coconut hit him square in the back of his leg, knocking him off balance as he fell backwards into the mud. He howled in pain-just before yet another coconut landed square in his mouth, plugging his roar of anger. As he stared up at the tree tops, he noticed three sets of eyes staring down at him in a triangular shape, all three of them moving up and down with their laughing. Still laying down in the mud, Sonic crushed the coconut in his mouth, bits of shell, meat and milk dropping from his mouth as he bared his fangs wide, uttering a low snarl again as he did. As he began to stand up, walking slowly towards the nearest tree with eyes in it, the three of them, knowing they were now discovered, fled through the branches, swinging from tree to tree in a synchronized trio.

Sonic immediately followed, letting his instincts take over as he took off on all fours, rapidly climbing up the tree and swinging with his stretchy arms from tree to tree, covering ground, or branches, with great speed. The three were already far ahead of him though, and now one of them had loaded up on coconuts and other fruits and began hurling them at Sonic. Sonic, angled eyes locked squarely on them now, swatted the fruit away, not even breaking his beat for a moment. He picked up speed, his heart beginning to race, arms outstretched from branch to branch, sometimes vine to vine, his mind now solely focused on the hunt.

The trio, Sonic now hot on their heels, ran into a maze of branches, jumping from level to level of branches and trees, nimbly slinking through the many thick layers of hanging moss and vines. Sonic, now being much bulkier, hit the maze-like trees with force, now immediately beginning to slip and fall to the forest floor from his sudden offset of balance. He narrowly managed to cling onto a vine, even then slipping some from the slippery surface caused by the rain. Losing the beat of his chase, he scrambled up the vine, covering little ground despite his frantic and wild clawing at the nearest branch or vine.

He slowed himself, forcing his instincts to the back of his mind to gather his bearings and just carefully work out how he was to climb up this tricky vine. He glanced up, noticing the trio of eyes, bobbing up and down with their laughter again. Up and down, up and down...up...and...Rage and instincts narrowing his eyesight to nothing but various shades of red, Sonic flung his arms at the closest vine, climbing to the connected branch in seconds. Recoiling in disbelief, the three troublemakers jumped a few levels of branches, fleeing through a small burrow of them above Sonic.

Sonic, claws sunken deeper into the branch bark with each jump to the next, pressed forward, building speed again as he kept up with the trio through the sound of their footsteps. Once again, he was back at the back heels of the trio, just a few inches out of his claws' reach. He could see them shifting through the trees' thicket on a higher branch above him as he chased. Sonic looked forward for a second, then back above at the troublemakers. Both Sonic's and their branches opened to a large clearing up ahead. He smiled cleverly, picking up speed as he approached the clearing.

Suddenly, as he was about to stretch his claw out, he ran straight into a thick knot of vines, a few jagged ones tearing a few slashes into is stomach. Howling loudly, he could hear the footsteps of the trio tip-tapping away as he fought with the vines. Anger at his boiling point, Sonic pulled back a tight fist, snarling lowly as he paused for just a moment. Feeling the power in his arm finally peak, he unleashed his best Wild Whirl, tearing the vines to shreds. Not wasting any time, he bounded ahead, pushing himself to his limit as he approached the clearing. Leaping at the branch above him, he sent a claw towards the tip of it, ripping the end of the branch right out from under the fleeing trio. Screeching loudly in surprise, they quickly recovered, diving right past the Werehog to a forest of dangling vines. Zeroing in on one, they rode it down, using their built-up speed to swing and propel them into the sky above the tree tops and out of sight.

Determined not to lose sight of them, Sonic dove down, following the same path as the troublemakers. Stretching his arm out, he gripped the vine tightly as he continued to let himself fall, using its speed to swing himself above the tree tops as well. Clearing through some branches as he went higher, he quickly found himself high above the forest, still flying forward from the strength of his swinging speed. The view was breathtaking.

The rainforest expanded all the way past the horizon in every direction, light blue rivers several times longer and wider than the largest trees he'd seen on the ground level still just mere, small veins in comparison to the vast rows of green that seemed to envelop everything else. He glanced up at the sky, completely moonless and dark, the only reason he himself could see it being his Werehog eyes. Rain, seemingly coming from nowhere, was coming down in buckets. He couldn't believe how much rain had been blocked from the leaves before! Slowly, he began to descend, accelerating faster and faster, everything around him merging into one green and aquamarine blur. For a moment, Sonic could've sworn he saw the big, muscular arms and claws change into his familiar thin, peach ones with gloved hands. Just for a moment.

A quick smile crossed his face, just a small smirk, before he dropped below the tree tops again, pouncing right on top of three troublemakers with a triumphant roar. The three had their backs turned, so they all looked quite startled when Sonic uttered his roar. He gripped two by their mid-section in his right, then one the same way in his left. They struggled and squirmed, but there was no way they were escaping this Werehog. Not after he had to chew on a jaw full of coconut. He hit the three with such impact that Sonic had broke the tree branch they were standing on in half, causing them to fall all the way into the muddy floor, the three troublemakers still pinned beneath the Werehog's intimidating claws.

He leaned down close to them, the three troublemakers trying to get away by forcing their heads back deeper into the mud. "Got ya," he whispered through bared fangs. As Sonic got the chance to look at them better, he noticed one had eyelashes with a light green feather tucked behind a brown, oval shaped ear. She had two gold bracelets on both wrists, with jewel-encrusted braces on both ankles. She had shoulder-length brownish-caramel hair, her tan muzzle twisted into a terrified frown. The other two, a little smaller, looked almost exactly identical save for the fact that one had a messy mop of hair on top while the other had a red feather in his hair. The twins were both wearing matching gold braces on their arms, bandages around their ankles. All three now had their eyes wide open as they stared up at the Werehog in fear, their long, thin tails swishing erratically like worms.

"Y-You're," Sonic began, unknowingly loosening his grip on the trio, "You're just kid monkeys." For all this time, Sonic had actually thought that some Dark Gaia's henchmen were messing with him. After all, if the Werehog was back now, he may as well expect the monsters, too. The girl gave him a hard kick to his nose, Sonic immediately staggering backwards a little as the monkeys scrambled to their feet. The girl had her arms crossed, an intimidating, yet unintentionally cute glare on her face. The other two tried to mimic her, twisting their bodies into awkward positions.

"S-So what if we are!" The girl stuttered.

"Yeah! What if!" The boys echoed in childish tones.

"At least monkeys don't go around and eat people!" She snapped at Sonic, still rubbing his nose from the kick.

Sonic looked at the three in confusion. "...Wh-Wait, what?"

"You know what I mean, monster!"

"Yeah! Monster! Monster!" The boys repeated.

"Not really...," Sonic responded, now growing impatient as a bit of a growl escaped his throat.

"You ate Mr. Sonic the Hedgehog! You ate him! You ate him!" The twins shrieked in anger, prompting the girl to turn and hiss a shush at them.

Sonic was quite taken aback, and rather rightfully upset. He'd been mistaken as a monster before when he was a Werehog, but tonight, he had had it up to here with these shenanigans.

"But _I_ _am_ Sonic!" He roared angrily.

"Liar! Liar!" The boys retorted. "You ate Mr. Sonic the Hedgehog, and now you tried to eat us!"

He glanced down at his claws for a moment, remembering the chase he'd just given them. _"Guess I didn't help my problem any with that,"_ Sonic thought, now beginning to feel guilty. He refocused his attention at the monkeys again, trying a different tactic. "Look! I didn't eat _anyone_ ok?" Sonic protested, trying now to watch his tone with the kids. None of them looked older than 9.

"Nuh-unh! You did _too!_" The girl argued, motioning to her brothers (Sonic could clearly tell they were at least semi-related). "_We_ saw you! We had pulled Sonic from the Great River, 'cause we knew he didn't like water! He was asleep, though, so we went to get Papa-"

"But then when we came back-" One boy interrupted.

"You were there!" The other finished. "And you were roaring and scratching and shouting and, and and-" The boy continued to blather, imitating Sonic's various Werehog roars and growls.

"And then we saw you go into the jungle! We knew you were looking for more people, so we decided to follow you!" The girl finished.

"...And pelt me with coconuts?" Sonic replied, still a little upset at the sore mouth that last one gave him.

"W-Well, you were going to eat us! And-"

"Yet I haven't eaten any of you," Sonic pointed out.

The three monkeys paused for a moment, the girl trying to open her mouth to speak but found no word. Then one of the twins spoke up. "B-But you were chasing us!"

"I chased you because you _attacked_ me!" Sonic snapped. "Besides I thought you were one of Dark Gaia's-"

Suddenly, Sonic heard a large roar come from behind them. He spun around, pulling back his face into a scowl as he heard the tell-tale, earthshaking footsteps coming in their direction. The three monkeys stumbled back, quivering in a huddled group up against a tree. The thudding footsteps got louder, louder, until what Sonic had hoped wouldn't show up did. A large Titan, club in one hand, effortlessly pulled two tress apart, making its path slowly towards Sonic and the three monkeys. Sonic brought his fists up closer to his face, preparing for the now inevitable fight. He let out a low snarl as he thought, _"I totally called that."_

Sonic placed himself firmly between the Titan and the monkeys, stopping a quick vertical club. He turned back partially towards the trio. "Nrrrrgh...G-Go! Run! Get out of here quick!" He grunted as the Titan piled on the pressure.

Nodding simultaneously, the monkeys quickly climbed up the tree, swinging into the distance. Sonic turned back towards the Titan, giving a hard lunge forward, knocking the club into the Titan's face. The giant monster hobbled backward, roaring a moan as he caught his balance against one of the trees. Sonic circled the Titan on all fours, glaring at him intensely. "Just you and me now, buddy," Sonic growled.

Before either could attack, he felt a hard claw club him from behind, allowing the Titan to bat him vertically into the air. As Sonic flew up, he turned back down towards the floor, noticing the tiny specks of several Deep Nightmares. _"...Cheater,"_ Sonic grumbled, quickly diving back down, claws outstretched as his instincts began to flood back to the foreground of his mind. "Oh, yeah? **Bring it, Dark Gaia!**"

Sonic crashed into the cluster of minions, taking out some Rexes, Nightmares, and Killer Bees that had shown up, too, almost immediately. He dodged a punch from a Deep Nightmare, hopping on a misplaced club from the Titan to gain a few Air Combos against them. "Come on, now!" Sonic roared as he knocked two Deep Nightmares together, "Is that all you guys got?" He guarded a spinning attack from another Deep Nightmare from behind him, turning around and coming down hard on him with a Were-Hammer.

The more Sonic fought, the more relief washed over him. It was so...refreshing, just to _punch_ something for once! After all the hits he took throughout the night, it felt so empowering just to give _something else_ a few punches for once. Or, in Sonic's case at that moment in the fight, headbutts, as he took down the last Deep Nightmare with a good, solid forehead hit. He turned back around to face the Titan, which he had saved for last. "Now it's your-" Sonic began to snarl, trailing off as he noticed that the Titan was nowhere to be found. _"...Where'd it-"_ Roaring, the Titan burst forward from the jungle, plowing Sonic into the ground before he could react.

Pinning him down with his foot, the Titan began to stomp wildly, creating huge shockwaves that only damaged the Werehog even more, his consciousness quickly beginning to fade again. Continuing the onslaught, the Titan jumped off of him, the next shockwave tossing Sonic against a tree, a visible indent planted into the bark from where his hit was.

Knocking the tree down with his club, the Titan proceeded to beat him, alternating between his fist and his club with each swing of his muscular arms. Sonic twitched weakly between hits, struggling to throw a claw or a kick at the rampaging Titan. Sonic, now too weak to move, grunted in agony as the Titan beat him down further into the mud with a double-fist. Standing up and roaring to the tree tops after he was satisfied, the Titan began to stomp away, unaware of the blue aura that was slowly enveloping the seemingly KO'd Werehog.

The aura continued to grow, brighter and brighter, until it was a beautiful light blue, glowing intensely in the dark, wet night. Suddenly, Sonic snapped his eyes open, and, with a roar of fury, stretched out his hand towards the Titan, pulling him back right into Sonic's fist. Continuing the punch, Sonic turned it into a Sho-Hog-Ken, his uppercut sending the Titan high into the air with the Werehog. Dodging a mid-air attempt from the Titan, Sonic grabbed onto its sides, pile-driving it into the ground. The Titan, despite his size, was back on his feet almost immediately, throwing a few whiffs with his club as Sonic ran around to his back. Giving it a good, hard kick, Sonic stretched an arm forward and into the air, shoving an outstretched punch into the Titan's face. It wobbled backward a bit, holding its head from such a hit.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Sonic grabbed onto his face with one claw, grunting heavily as he heaved the Titan over his head and onto its back on the ground. Sonic leaped onto him in a second, clawing wildly at the Titan as he struggled against the Werehog's attacks. Finally, after Sonic was satisfied with the amount of damage he'd done, he pulled both of his fists back in the air, paused, and unleashed a huge Earthshaker on the Titan. With one final punch, the Titan poofed into a purplish cloud of smoke, the dark energy being absorbed by Sonic unintentionally. Proud of his victory, Sonic threw his arms back and faced his head towards the sky, howling victoriously as his aura faded, quickly passing out.

* * *

><p>…...Sonic could hear voices. They were murmuring, but he didn't quite know what. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting to see where he was now. He felt the floor around him. Leaves, shaped in the form of a bed. There was a light, cloth blanket over his legs as he examined the area around him. It was dark, but Sonic could tell he was in a small room of some sort.<p>

The walls felt cool, possibly made of an adobe-like substance. The floor itself, Sonic couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like bark. Noticing his hands, Sonic held one up in front of his face. It was gloved with a thin, peach color to his arm. "Finally," Sonic sighed with relief.

Almost immediately, the three monkeys from last night burst into the room, light flooding in from outside. Shielding his face as his eyes adjusted, the three monkeys jumped onto his bed in unison.

"S-Sonic!" The girl cried, "You're ok!"

"W-We're sorry we didn't believe you earlier, a-about before!" One of the boys cried as they all hugged him tightly.

"We came back after we heard you howl," The other began quickly, "A-and then the sun came up, a-and then you-We took you back here, and-"

"H-Hey, hey!" Sonic began, a little startled, "It's ok, just gimme some air, alright?"

The monkeys backed up almost immediately, looking sheepishly at each other. "We really are sorry, Sonic, about before...," The girl began slowly.

"Look, it's alright," Sonic reassured.

"I-It's just that, well, you looked so different!"

"And **scary!**" One boy interrupted.

"Yeah! I was shaking!" The other chimed.

"And those roars, and big long claws, and huuuuuge arms, and, uh, oh! Those looong fangs!"

"Yeah! Fangs!" The first agreed.

As the girl tried to hush her brothers, Sonic stared down at his bracelet, tucked securely under the cuff of his glove, then down at his hands. He sighed heavily. He remembered a similar conversation he had with Chip after saving Amy in Spagonia. He had completely forgotten how afraid people were of his Werehog self. He'd forgotten how he had to be careful with who saw him at night. He'd forgotten just how lonely it was...

"Hey Sonic?" One of the boys yelled loudly, snapping Sonic out of his trance, "Did we tell you our names yet?"

"Uh-"

"Oh yeah!" The girl exclaimed. "I'm Mocha!"

"Caramel!" The boy monkey with the feather in his hair exclaimed.

"Mango!" The other boy monkey finished.

"So then," Mocha began, "Do you think you could feel well enough to come and meet the village?" Caramel and Mango were already tugging on Sonic's arms, dragging him towards the door.

"Aha, I guess," Sonic said unsurely with a weak smile as he was dragged out the door.

**Artist's Comments**

Yayz! Next chapter! I hope you guys like it! More info about the mysterious appearance of Dark Gaia's minions will be next chapter! Feel free to review! No critiques please.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3-Supernatural Activity**

Sonic wanted to just stretch his arms out, feel the filtered rays of the sun for once in what seemed like months, maybe sit back and relax his sore muscles from a long night's fight for just a few moments. However, Mocha, Mango, and Caramel insisted that they go and drag him around the entire village, parading him around like their newest toy, which in a sense is what he felt like at that moment. They introduced him to their little friends, all babbling their names, how they were his "bestest" fan, their favorite food, and just about every other thought a young kid could get out of their mouth within a mere span of seconds before they went to the next, almost identical wood house. Sonic played along patiently, if only because he still felt guilty about knocking them out of the trees last night. Besides, his focus was now on the village as a whole, which was rather cleverly designed. The whole village was on several levels of thick, gigantic branches, the tops of which having been carved out like a boat for houses and a small, deeper river of water cut out in the middle for rain to collect. The design would then allow the water drip down to the tip of the branch so that it can cascade down to the rainforest floor like a waterfall. Sonic peered over the edge of the branch-wall. They were very high up, at least double what he was last night when he was swinging from trees.

Sonic, being accidentally jerked back a little too hard for his liking by the younger twins from the wall, then soon found himself in front of a large and complex, multi-level, wooden house that actually was so large that its structure had to be built around several higher branches. The roofs, all ending in flat points, were colored with various bright colors such as green and yellow, forming some sort of tribal pattern that Sonic didn't seem to understand. He gawked at the structure's unique features as the three young monkeys excitedly dragged him through the front doorway, which only seemed to have a red, thick cloth for its door. Past the cloth, sitting quietly on a bright red, square carpet, was a tall, lanky, old baboon. His eyes were fixed on an old book in his right hand, held at half the length of his bony arm away from his face. He seemed to not even notice Sonic and the monkeys as they dragged the distracted hedgehog along, who was now surveying the expansive room.

It was full of tribal carvings and garments, possibly ceremonial, stacked haphazardly on a few small shelves scattered around the room. The floor was wooden, just like all the houses, with a few bright-colored rugs strewn about. The baboon himself was sitting on what might have been the largest rug in the room, colored a bright orange. There were a few small pots, full of an odd, powdery, greyish substance being burned on the orange rug, smoke swirling up and all around the room. Incense? Maybe some sort of old-fashioned, traditional ash? Sonic coughed a little as he tried to wave the smoke away, getting his hand free from the twins for a moment before they started crying, forcing a cringing hedgehog to reluctantly give his hand up again.

As the monkeys neared the old baboon, they quickly let go of Sonic, to his relief, and stood close behind the baboon as he continued to read. Sonic continued to cough a little as he tried to wave away the smoke, the monkeys now anxiously nudging and poking the old monkey.

"Uhm, Papa?" Mocha poked the baboon with a shy pointer finger gently, "We brought him. We took long because we just wanted to show him some-stuff-and we kinda-"

"No, no that's fine. I see," mumbled the baboon as he continued to read. After a long pause, the three monkeys trying to contain their bouncing energy, the baboon slowly shut his book. "You've done just fine; You may leave now." His voice was quiet and calm, and so full of wisdom and knowledge.

"Aw!" Whined Mango, "But, but I wanted to talk with Mr. Sonic the Hedgehog too!"

_"Like they haven't been doing that with me and their friends for the past half-hour?"_

"Yeah!" Echoed Caramel, Mocha trying in vain to shush them both.

"We can talk grown-up! We can listen to anything that-" Mango stopped mid-speech as his father lowered his eyes at them. "A-alright. Fine," grumbled Mango as he and his two siblings stomped out the front door (or, in this case, cloth). As Sonic finished watching them leave, he turned back towards the baboon, who had now stood up and was holding out a hand.

Sonic met his handshake quickly, though being careful with his strength so that he wouldn't knock the old man off balance. He smiled pleasantly at the hedgehog. "Well, I'd like to begin by saying 'welcome to our village,' but I see that my children have already given you quite the reception."

Sonic chuckled a little. "Yeah, well," Sonic began sarcastically, "I'd say those Dark Gaia minions were really the ones who brought the party."

"Hah," he chuckled weakly, "They have become quite a problem in this forest as far as the past few days are concerned."

_"Few days? Just how long was I out exactly?"_

"In fact," he started as he walked towards a flight of steps, Sonic beginning to follow close behind, "They have destroyed large portions of the forest, leaving no root or shrub unturned." He looked back at Sonic slightly as he climbed the steps. "I suspect that they're...looking for something."

"'Looking for something?'" Sonic began, recalling his first fight with Dark Gaia's minions during Unleashed,"Hey, I've fought these things before, and believe me, all they think about is breaking stuff."

"Ah, yes, I'm well aware of your past battles with Dark Gaia and his minions," He admitted with a smile as he continued to climb, "But I believe that this time is...different somehow."

"Well, how about them even being here at all?" Sonic suggested as he followed the winding stairway, wondering now just how many steps it'll be before they reach the top, "The planet's not broken, so how did they even get here?"

He raised a finger. "Mm, but who ever said that it wasn't?"

Sonic stopped mid-step, staring up at him with bewilderment as he continued to climb, not ever missing a beat. "H-hold on...Do y-you actually mean that-...that the planet is-it just-" _"No way!"_

The baboon, now at the top of the set of stairs, pulled back another red cloth being used as a door, motioning with his hand towards the doorway, rays of light pouring through. Sonic could see the tops of trees against a sky blue through the narrow doorway as he squinted a bit. "See for yourself." Without even letting a moment go by, Sonic sped past the baboon, nearly knocking him over as he ran across a large, wooden deck, barely stopping himself in time before he went straight through the surrounding railing. He clung to the railing tightly as he peered off into the horizon as his eyes narrowed in a desperate search for what the crazy old baboon was referring to. Sonic searched anxiously, his quilled head darting from one direction to the next, now beginning to feel like he was in a 'Where's Waldo?' game.

_"There's just...there's no way the baboon could be right ! I don't care what I am now or whether his minions came back, how could the planet's pieces possibly...!"_

There, amongst the tropical green foliage of the jungle and below the lightly clouded blue sky, was what looked like a large gash across the jungle floor. Normally such things would be hidden by the vast forest of trees and shrubbery, but the lava seeping out from the gash had burnt everything in its immediate area, creating a multi-mile-long piece of volcanic plains, stretching way beyond the horizon.

_"Oh, man...Not again..."_

Sonic craned his head to try and see more of the gash, nearly falling over the side as the baboon came up from behind him. "That faultline," the baboon began, "Was made in a matter of hours a few nights ago after an incredibly massive earthquake. Shortly thereafter, Dark Gaia's minions began to appear, a little less than a day or so before you showed up, actually."

Sonic put his hand under his muzzle thoughtfully. _"Sounds like the quake started around the time Eggman got me with that machine of his!"_

"We've also been feeling small tremors after the faultline's appearance around the area," continued the baboon, "However, they've been growing, and I suspect another quake is coming. When or where I cannot say for certain, but its threat is obvious. I don't know how long it will take before the planet's pieces actually _**dislodge**_, but at this rate..."

"I better get to Angel Island quick," Sonic mumbled to himself as he continued to look at the fault.

"Angel Island?" The baboon questioned as he looked at Sonic curiously, "Do you have a friend there?"

Sonic snapped his gaze towards the baboon. "Oh, uh, yeah. He's pretty good with figuring out this kind of stuff. He'll probably know how to fix it." _"I hope."_

"Then allow me to point you in the proper direction." He pointed a bony finger towards a large river, conveniently curved around the tail-end of the fault. "Follow that river. It will lead you out into the ocean. Then, maintain a northbound position until you hit a small port town. From there, go west. If you keep your direction about you, then you'll be around the outskirts of Angel Island by the time you hit land."

_"Water. Why water?"_

"Ok! Thanks for your help, old man!" Sonic began to turn, when the baboon grabbed his arm tightly, knocking him off balance.

"Actually, there was one more thing." The baboon mumbled quietly. "Just one more thing I wished to tell you." He was studying the bracelet intensely, which made Sonic increasingly creeped out.

"Y-yeah? What?"

"Your curse. It is, much stronger than last time. The bracelet, it tells me so." Sonic, confused and concerned by what the baboon meant, slowly pulled his hand back, staring down at the bracelet.

_"The bracelet, 'told him so'?"_

He looked up at Sonic, a serious expression present on his face. "Sonic, I know that these events may seem the same as last time, but I assure you, they're far from it. These events aren't natural, even for the Gaia cycle."

_"From what Chip said, last time didn't seem too everyday either."_

"These events, are ones that the world has never encountered before, so you'd best air on the side of caution."

Sonic paused, glancing down at the bracelet, its eerie, darkish purple smoke swirling idly by, seemingly waiting patiently for the next sun-down. "Don't worry, I got this," Sonic assured him, putting a smirk on his face as pushed his words of warning to the back of his head. He sped towards the railing of the deck, hopping over the side and diving into the foliage. "Thanks again, old man!" He echoed as his voice fell with him. The baboon gazed over the edge, watching the blue blur boost through the foliage, quickly becoming a dot against the landscape as he found the river, a large v-shape rippling through the water signaling his location.

"I certainly hope so," the baboon mumbled as the blur faded out of sight over the horizon, "For both you and the world's sake."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sonic was boosting across the water, pushing himself to max speed as he glanced up at the sky. He pondered what the baboon said to him as he was leaving, never once taking his eyes off the wispy clouds eclipsing the mid-day sun. <em>"What did that guy mean by the bracelet 'telling him'?"<em> He glanced down at the bracelet, still a reddish-purple color, then back up at the sky. _"Just how much can this bracelet do?"_ Sonic turned a hard right as the river began to widen and curve. _"And while I'm on the subject of weird events-"_ Sonic jumped over a stray log, landing gently on top of the bobbing wood to rest for a moment. _"Just how unnatural are these events he's talking about? I know he seemed to think it's pretty bad, but seriously, how much worse than last time can it get?" _Sonic looked down at his hands, almost forgetting that it wasn't that time of night yet. What the baboon said about his Werehog self was probably the thing that was at forefront of his head right now. _"And my curse is actually stronger this time? What does that mean?"_ He glanced at the bracelet and then back at his hands. _"Does that mean I'll just be stronger, like, have more moves and stuff as a Werehog? Or does it mean that I might-"_

Suddenly, Sonic heard a large rumble, the water beginning to bob the log an exaggerated amount of height into the air and down once more. The trees and vines all began to shudder and vibrate wildly as the log began to tip over mid-air. _"Wh-whoa! That is one BIG earthquake! That baboon wasn't kidding around!"_ Sonic spun in the air, immediately boosting to full speed when his sneakers hit the water. Sonic continued to boost, trying to ignore the wild and exaggerated vibrations. The perpetual quakes made the water even more unstable underneath his feet, his phobia automatically forcing him to go faster, almost hoping to just fly away and off the surface altogether. "What I wouldn't give for my plane right about now...," Sonic sighed heavily as he approached the mouth of the river, leading into the vast ocean.

As the mouth quickly came closer, the already huge ocean continued to grow in size and expanse, covering the entire horizon in front of him by the time he reached the river's end. He took in a deep breath as he sped into the landless blue in front of him. He glanced up at the sky; A little past noon-at least that's what he thought as he struggled to keep north, using the sun as his only compass. He began to wonder what would happen if he let sundown come, while he was in the middle of the big, deep...He shuddered, shaking off his nerves as best as he could while on the middle of a huge body of water. _"This better be one small ocean."_

Sonic checked the sun again. A small tint of orange was now present in the landscape, so he guessed it had been a few hours since he first hit the ocean. He had tried his hardest to keep the flat landscape from distorting his sense of direction, checking the sun every few minutes to see if he went off course. He might've started to a few different times, especially when he stumbled over a jumping fish or glanced down at his reflection in the water for too long (he tried to see if he could watch the sun through his reflection instead of burning his eyes out by looking directly at it). He, luckily, was able to change his direction back to north before he got hopelessly lost at sea, however. He seemed determined not to let water get the best of him this time. His temper, however, was an entirely different story.

* * *

><p>"Ughhh, how can I possibly <strong>not<strong> be there yet?" He moaned out loud. "That's the last time I take directions from an old baboon." Sonic began to wonder if he would be able to make it in time, at least to the port city, before the sun actually...Sonic shook his head, eyes shut tight as he hit max speed. _"S-Shake it off, hedgehog, just shake it off,"_ he thought nervously to himself, _"You won't let that happen. You'll make it."_ At least Sonic was seriously hoping he would, before he went mad from the tropical ocean heat and started chugging the salty ocean water.

Speaking of insanity, Sonic began to see something short, straight, and shiny grey on the horizon. It looked very different from what he'd seen for a while, though one would think anything would have the same effect on a hydrophobic hedgehog whose only sight had been water and sun for the past few hours. Sonic wanted to say it was real, but he couldn't shake the thought that maybe he _had_ gone insane, in which case he would prepare himself for images of giant chili dogs with feathery wings dancing the conga in front of his hungry face.

To his relief, as he got nearer and nearer to the strange object, it began to grow, getting higher, higher and higher still until he could see stories upon stories of glass, metal, and silver paint. A skyscraper! Sonic sped himself up even more, his surroundings now beginning to blur into a giant scattered blob of blue, orange, and silver. Several more blobs of silver began to pop up next to the first one, then some brown blobs of what Sonic guessed was a port, then the white, red and yellow of the harbor boats, and then, finally, the various colors of cars bustling about on the blacktop, right next to the boardwalk. "YES!"

Sonic was now going so fast that he started spin-dashing, blasting past the boats in the harbor in a flash. Within seconds, Sonic was blazing past the docks, carrying with him a strong gust of wind that left puzzled sailors teetering near the edges of their vessels. He didn't even notice all the awed and surprised beach-goers as he sped down the wide shore, kicking up a considerably large jet of sand as he went. He could've sworn he heard one of the many people that were now pointing and screaming (fangirlishly, that is) in his direction stop rather suddenly mid-screech. He wanted to check back to see if he had accidentally thrown some sand into her mouth, but he had already passed the boardwalk at that point and was now speeding into the heart of the city.

The whole place seemed rather full of life, but the part he was exploring at the moment seemed imparticularly bustling. He should've expected as much from stopping to take a break right in the center of the city, but he really wasn't thinking about much right now except for catching up with himself after such a long run. _"Boy, I did not expect to be running for that long,"_ Sonic thought to himself, _"And I was at practically Mach 1 the whole time! Still, I did seem a little...on the slow side during the run. Sure, I was pushing for a sonic boom the entire time, but it seemed like no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get it!" _Sonic put a finger under his chin thoughtfully, noticing the cold tingle of the bracelet against his muzzle. _"Last night must have tired me out more than I thought..."_ He glanced up at the city's giant plasma tv; It was already 5:30 p.m. _"And I've still got a whole other piece of ocean to cross..."_

With that, Sonic tiredly stood up and began to limber up, preparing himself for the last stretch of his long day's run. _"Guess I better get going then..."_ As he did a few quick squats, glancing toward the direction of the beach, something caught his attention. He turned back around and noticed a small hot dog shop down the adjacent sidewalk corner. He licked his muzzle hungrily as his ears perked up a bit. _"But first..."_ Within a moment, Sonic boosted into the tiny shop, running past startled and confused window shoppers as he sped down to the tail end of the restaurant. After a small pause, Sonic blasted out the exit, quickly finishing off the final bit of his third chili dog as he waved a thank you back to the kind shop owners. They waved back appreciatively, holding a large bag of Rings in one hand as Sonic sped down to the docks.

As he approached the docks, boats filling the harbor to the brim with talkative sailors and the smells of seawater, a thought struck him. _"Wait a sec'..."_ He turned, now running adjacent to the harbor boardwalk. _"Which way is West again?"_ He searched around the harbor for some indication of his direction, never stopping for a moment as he did. He had tried looking at the sun (as damaging as such a constant activity could be for him), but the sky had clouded up considerably; They looked ready to explode into a downpour at any second. _"Great, now I'll probably have to cross a __**rainy**__ ocean..."_ After a few seconds, he spotted a hefty sailor, who was engaged in quite the 'lecture' with a greenhorn deckhand. Sonic turned a hard left into the dock holding the sailor's boat, screeching to halt just as he approached the very end. The two immediately stopped, holding their hands over their ears for a moment from Sonic's sudden halt.

Sonic gave them a quick, friendly wave. "Hey, you guys know where West is?" Sonic asked hurriedly, his eyes still nervously darting towards the sky every few seconds.

"Yeah!" Chimed the greenhorn, pointing down a street leaving the boardwalk and then down to another end of the city. "Just head down that way and take a left at the hotel-"

The elder sailor shoved the greenhorn aside, giving him a fierce glare. "What the heck are you givin' him directions for?" He hissed. "Everybody knows Sonic hates water! 'N not only is 'ere a storm brewing, the seas 've been mighty fierce for the past day or two startin' when it gets near dusk! You should be tellin' 'im to-" When the sailor went to motion towards Sonic, he found nobody there.

Meanwhile, Sonic was already back in the middle of the city, taking the left at the hotel the sailor mentioned towards another section of harbor. It was quite confusing for Sonic to try and remember where he was or was going on such a large island city. At least the residents seemed nice enough, if not a little fantardish when they saw him. As he approached the docks again, Sonic noticed a large, expensive yacht being pulled into the dock. With its 3-level deck, 30-person crew (he counted them scrambling around on the deck), and luxury personal restaurant (there was a long, single window pane giving Sonic a good view of the inside), it was quite the boat-except for a few little 'dents'. As he approached the end of the docks, the end of the boat revealed that something massive had struck the bow. The blow must've been quite the force, as it had left the bow looking like a mangled, compact heap trailing onto the rest of the boat by a few threads of steel. He didn't understand how it wasn't sunk yet.

As Sonic continued to look on, he winced a little at the thought of whatever had caused such large damage (he sure knew it wasn't any simple boulder). _"Dang, that's some wreck..."_ He glanced back at the ocean, which was beginning to expand again in front of him, then up at the sky. _"Hope I don't have to deal with whatever made that."_ Suddenly, he felt a quick series of sloshes under his feet, prompting an immediate check of the ground under him; He was back on the water now. _"Huh. Maybe I should distract myself more often."_ Hearing a large thunderclap overhead, followed by a sudden large shift under him, Sonic refocused himself on the ocean. The ocean was starting to roll in considerably large waves, Sonic being forced to wind up and down the hills of water without slowing down and breaking the tension._"Or maybe I should give this last run everything I've got so that I don't drown."_ Sonic locked his eyes on the ocean, took a deep breath as he carefully dashed over another rolling wave, and poured all of his speed into his strongest boost he could muster.

He took off like a rocket, immediately beginning to push Mach 1 in seconds flat. Still keeping himself focused on the sea's wild movements, he barrelled up and over wave after wave. He only stumbled maybe once or twice over some fish, but now the fish seemed more worried of running into him instead of the opposite. Sonic kept himself perfectly on course, never once straying from his direction despite his lack of scenery to suggest it. He pushed himself harder, nearing a sonic boom. He smirked, feeling his surge of speed returning to him. He had to have already covered several hundred miles in what _felt_ like only minutes. He continued to accelerate, inching closer and closer towards the boom. _"C'mon, just one little boom. That's all I'm asking for here," _Sonic thought anxiously to himself, unknowingly feeling a different, growing type of shift under his feet, followed by a few gurgling sounds, "Then I'll be in the-!"

* * *

><p>Suddenly, a huge rumbling shook the ocean under his feet, creating a huge depression in the water. He reeled back a little, still forcing himself to run. <strong>"Whoa!" <strong>As Sonic tried to run away from the ocean's indent, it only continued to enlarge, keeping him trapped in this water bowl. "Wh-what is this-?" As he struggled with the depression, trying his best to boost forward, he could've sworn he noticed some large air bubbles beneath him, followed by an eerie...quake of some kind. As the quake began to stir the waters around him, he was quickly met with a most frightening sight.

A huge, towering wave of water was rumbling toward his direction, the large depression no doubt being a by-product of such an incredible swell. Sonic began to let out a loud cry, but it was quickly stifled by the wave's increasingly large body of water it was carrying, sucking him under in an instant.

As he began to sink, shellshocked at being pulled under so suddenly, he began to hear an echo of some kind. He perked his ears some more, and, still in a bit of a daze, glanced down at the darkening abyss below him. Seeded at what seemed like the very bottom (he didn't even understand how anything could reach that far) came a faint string of light. Orange and yellow-colored with some red, it began to grow in intensity, finally peaking at the level and brightness of a lighthouse. Accompanying the light was an echo. At least, that's what Sonic thought he heard as he tried to snap himself to full consciousness again. The echo began to resonate and bounce up the levels of the ocean, steadily rising in volume. When it finally reached Sonic, the small little echo had culminated into a muffled, yet distinct, whale-like roar.

Oddly enough, it seemed as though the roar was coming from a wave of energy, for just such a thing surged upwards in all directions. The blast was too fast for his eye to catch completely, but he certainly could feel it when it reached him. He knew because he felt the powerful shock of the energy ride up his feet, into his spine, and then ending at the tips of his ears. Such a feeling sickened him to his stomach, but he seemed more concerned with what it had done to the bracelet, for it was now glowing an intense purple. Startled again by a second echoing roar, Sonic snapped to full consciousness, instinctively beginning to spin-boost. He climbed levels of the ocean rapidly, constantly having to restart his boosting from the underwater current knocking him around.

Finally, after about two whole minutes of being trapped underwater, Sonic burst forth from the ocean, immediately being greeted by a torrent of rain and flurries of waves. Coughing up a lung full of water, he refused to stop boosting, drunkenly dodging the rolling waves as he tried to find his way out of this aquatic nightmare. Finally catching a little bit of breath, he successfully managed to dance his way out of the waves' immediate direction. Hoping he'd be fine if he kept up the speed and maintained his distance in-between a pair of them, he took this time to gather himself again.

"_Wh...What the f*** was __**that?**__"_ Sonic coughed up a little more water as he wiped some raindrops from his soaked muzzle. _"These waves...that light...and that...that creepy roar...where was that coming from anyways?"_ Sonic looked around him, searching for some form of immediate open water. _"All these...these __**giant**__ waves...did they all come from that single tremor?"_ He looked up uneasily at the huge hills of water rolling around him in every direction. _"These sure are gonna make one heck of a surf day for all those beach guys...Wait..."_ Sonic's preoccupied face began to twist into one of absolute horror and realization. _"Oh no..."_ Sonic pulled a hard 180 in the water, nimbly spin-dashing through a few waves as he began to pour all of his speed into one long boost, trying his best to remain on the same path he came from.

"The city!" Sonic cried. "If these waves are already _that_ big this far out, then by the time they reach the town...those guys don't stand a chance! Not against a **monster** of a tsunami like the one that's gonna slam them if I don't-**NGHK!**" Sonic clutched his side as a sudden, familiar pain surged up his spine, making his hair prickle a bit. "O...Oh no...!" He gasped as he began to feel the tell-tale signs that prelude his transformation. "P...Please...Oh, please...Not now...!" He could already feel the prickling sensation turn into the familiar pain of his fur beginning to grow rapidly. Looking down at the water in fear, then back at the waves as he began to approach them, Sonic tried to suppress the horrible visions of him thrashing his Werehog arms wildly underwater as he ran out of air.

"_No...It...It's gonna happen...I-I don't have enough time...Not at this rate..."_ As Sonic felt his fur begin to thicken, a wave of determination swept over him, prompting another huge, last-ditch boost of speed. Ignoring the searing pain growing in his muzzle as it began to elongate, Sonic blasted past the waves, quickly leaving them in the dust as a loud, 'booooom,' caught up with his slowly elongating ears. A smirk crossed his face as everything around him began to blur again, raindrops pounding against his increasingly furry, darkening muzzle as he continued to gain speed, a successful sonic boom now not good enough for the cocky hedgehog.

"**Wooo-yeah!**" Sonic cried happily, despite his teeth now beginning to slide down his greyed muzzle. "No body of water's getting **this** hedgehog! Not today!" He continued to blast through the water, creating his own series of impressive ripples in the water behind him. Luckily for him, his transformation was far slower than his current running speed, so Sonic still had a chance at reaching the shoreline in time-provided he went the right way. Sonic squinted, searching anxiously along the horizon for any sign of the city as he felt his fangs complete their final sharpening. He waited a few moments, expecting the skyscrapers to start popping up any second now at his current speed. He moaned a little as another thunderclap echoed overhead "Aw, don't tell me I-!" Just as Sonic was about to conclude he took the wrong direction, he spotted a small, collected series of shiny buildings off to the right of him, quickly gaining in height.

Sonic immediately did a hard right, putting him on the proper course with the city again. "Awesome! I'm gonna make it!" He suddenly felt a strange quiver come over his body, ignoring it at first. "I'm gonna make-**ACK!**" Sonic took in a sudden gasp as his claws burst from his gloves, catching him off balance and throwing him at the water. **"NOO!"** Sonic roared, his voice sounding more awkward than ever mid-transformation. Still keeping a good chunk of his speed despite his trip, Sonic began to skip across the surface like a stone, his transformation now violently taking hold of him after being forced back for so long.

He hit the water for the first skip as he felt his fur completely grow in. His arms soon followed, quickly beginning to thicken and gain muscle mass. After the second skip, they were growing at such a rate that he could practically _feel _the muscle tissue being ripped apart and reconstructed at an incredibly rapid pace. The third skip brought his chest and overall frame becoming more stout and muscular, again literally tearing his poor cells apart and mashing them together again in a matter of seconds. After the fourth skip, Sonic could feel his socks becoming more ripped and his shoes more spiked, the straps already having turned metal. A few more agonizing skips, and Sonic was promptly delivered to the sandy beach floor, greeting it with his lips as his skidded across the ground, finally stopping when he plowed into a sandcastle.

Moaning in relieved pain, Sonic slowly lifted his head up, shaking his head free of the mound of sand he had buried himself in. As he held his head gingerly with one claw, he began to glance around a bit, almost immediately stopping when he noticed a small pair of feet standing directly in front of him in the sand. He followed the legs until he was met with the face of quite the upset little 6-year-old. She was clutching a white and blue polka-dot umbrella awkwardly in her sandy little hands, glaring sadly at the Werehog. He shook his head a few times, just to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating. Honestly, he didn't believe that such a little girl could stand out here in such a storm just to protect her sand castle. He couldn't tell for sure, but either she was trembling from him or the bitter cold accompanying the storm (heck, it could have been both for all Sonic knew).

The two just stared at each other for a moment, rain filling the otherwise long, quiet pause. "...Uhhh-" Sonic began slowly, accidentally making it sound more like a random snarl. The girl automatically flinched, still not taking her now watering eyes off of the Werehog. Without thinking, she pulled her umbrella back as far as she could, prompting a startled Werehog to hold up a large hand in protest. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait-" Sonic got mouthful of leather and steel in his face faster than he could howl in pain. The little girl got a few more rounds in before finally retreating to her parents, who had been looking onward at them since the very beginning, sobbing loudly. Her parents, after giving the now bruised and bleeding Werehog a good double glare, promptly hauled their child away. The family did not even take a moment to try and figure out whether it was, oh, maybe the same blue hedgehog they had seen blazing through the city earlier this morning or not.

Sonic rubbed his head tenderly, trying to soothe the heavy cuts as best as he could with his sandy claws. Not the best results. He picked himself up slowly, taking a good look at the city before him. Plenty of what the little girl had just given him awaited the weary Werehog in the city. "Ohhh, this isn't gonna be fun," he grunted to himself as he began to sprint on all fours towards the city, already beginning to feel the many hits and screams of terror that are sure to follow. "They better listen, for all our sakes..." grumbled the sore Werehog as he sped towards the city, knowing all too well what fate awaits the citizens, and himself for that matter, should he fail to get their attention.

**Artist's Comments**

LOL Sonic just got owned by FOUR little kids now. Haha, maybe I'll make it a running gag? Idk…Oh, and as for that roar and stuff, that WILL play a VERY important role with Sonic's transformations from now on. Anyways, I originally had the actual Werehog part crammed in with the rest of this chapter, but it was just toooo looooonnnggg! So I had to split it up. Soo, yeah, Chapter 4 might be a little short compared with my other chapter thus far, but I promise you this: It's good. Lots of action and fights, plus humor! Aaaand another Sonic Official is FINALLY coming in! Plus, there's an old enemy of Sonic's that's coming in, and he's just dying for a third re-match. Well, hope you guys like! Fav and comment! Sorry for any grammar mistakes and/or typos! I tried to spot and correct as many as I can!


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